Where to buy

This is really a question for anyone living in Portland, OR (presently or formerly).

I'm getting a 15" powerbook soon, my original thought was to buy it directly from the official apple store. But Portlanders will know that we have this place called "the portland mac store" (also "the mac store" in beaverton and surrounding areas) that has been a long time exclusive mac dealer.

One nice thing about this local small business is they have lots of accessories like timbuk2, crumpler, and loads of other popular powerbook bags in stock. I like that they provide this sort of thing, because it's hard to make a buying decision about a laptop bag purely from reading websites. Holding them in my hand still makes a big difference.

Can anyone provide for/against arguments why I might choose 'the mac store' over Apple's official retail store? Seems pricing is the same, and generally all things being equal I like to support small businesses. But I don't know if all things are equal here. How are these guys at warranty stuff compared to apple?

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